Are Hypnotic Trances Deeper for some than others?

Deeper hypnotic trances is still debated within hypnosis

The idea of
some people being in deeper hypnotic trances than others and what that really means is still debated in
hypnosis research.

Some people
report that their experiences of trance allow them to experience a deeper
experience than what they or other report before them. What it means to “Go
deeper” is that they are able to get further removed from their immediate
surroundings and senses than others. This means that what they experience is
that they hear and feel very different things than is going on in the room as
they are in trance. They no longer hear the noises in the room, may visualise
or hallucinate; their sense may feel internally and emotionally different too.
When asking individual subjects how one experience of trance compares to another
that they have experienced, they report that each experience of trance often
has a very different set of sensations than the previous ones.

What are the different ways in which you can tell "how deep" some one goes?

The range of
experiences that someone in trance says it feels like can vary from it feeling like no real difference from just closing your eyes,
whilst the most detached experience that those hypnotised describe is being totally unable to remember anything that has taken place during the trance experience. Whilst they are hypnotised their bodies may go completely rigid, with arms and legs stuck solid in one position, or as the picture above shows even the whole body can become so rigid that it can be balanced between two chairs.( Due to the damage this can do to the neck, this practise has now stopped).

Deep trance can give total confusion

For those people who re-orientate to the room with no recollection of
events, they report that they had no recollection of the therapist’s voice and
return to the room puzzled about what they have experienced. For some people
they can experience a level of distance from their immediate surroundings so
great that they may demonstrate a catatonic state whilst in trance, appearing
rigid and as some stage hypnotist demonstrate can be laid prostrate across
chairs with the participant not reporting any immediate effects.

Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale

There have been lots of
research into the deeper hypnotic trances people can and do, experience; and
the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale is one way of measuring this. This
scale is intended to measure how deep a subject can go in trance, however as
already outlined; people get different depth of trance with each experience. So
regardless of how deep people have reported going, each experience can be and
will be different.

Anxious patients often have light trances

Some people do present as
only ever having a light trance experience. This is common with people who are
anxious about the process of trance. Once this anxiety is addressed they report
that they are able to go deeper. Not everyone can experience deepest hypnotic
trances, that of being rigid or “catatonic” states. So it is true that some
people report they are unable to go as deep as others.

Does how deep you go into a hypnotic trance affect on how well the treatment works?

In terms of therapeutic effect, going deep into trance or just lightly into
trance does not impact on how effective the post hypnotic suggestions, those
messages which are designed to help people make positive changes are received
and acted on.
When a group of subjects are guided into trance together, using the same
technique, the same person, in the same room and at the same time you would
expect the subjects to report similar experiences, given that they have
experienced precisely the same event. Predictably, this is not the case. People
report different experiences of trance, from light to catatonic depth of
trance.